HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

July 6, 2023 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH  

• 5 non-travel related cases of malaria have been reported in the U.S. (NPR)
• Yes, They Are Coming for Your Birth Control (Elle)
• The AMA predicts a shortage of medical specialists by the next decade  ((NPR)
• What if the ambulance doesn't come? Rural America faces a broken emergency medical system  (USA Today)
• FDA approves $3.2 million gene therapy for rare muscular dystrophy in kids ages 4 and 5 (CNN)
• 78 people face charges for $2.5 billion in attempted health care fraud, DOJ says (KPBS)

SCIENCE AND TECH

• Threads Becomes Most Rapidly Downloaded App, Raising Twitter’s Ire (New York Times)
• Biden’s hydrogen bombshell leaving Europe in the dust (Politico)
• Sharing deepfake intimate images to be criminalised in England and Wales (Guardian)
• Amazon accused of tricking Prime customers (BBC)
• Nearly half of US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling beekeepers stabilize population  (AP)
• New class of gravitational waves could reveal supermassive black holes (NPR)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH  

5 non-travel related cases of malaria have been reported in the U.S. (NPR)

…Each year in the U.S., there's about 2,000 cases of malaria, but all of those are generally travel-related…. These five cases are locally transmitted….where they live - four in Southwest Florida and one in South Texas. So that prompted the CDC to send out an alert to doctors, telling them to look out for more cases.

Yes, They Are Coming for Your Birth Control (Elle)

The antiabortion movement succeeded in overturning Roe v. Wade a year ago. It’s going after contraception next.

The AMA predicts a shortage of medical specialists by the next decade  ((NPR)

A shortage of medical specialists means some patients face long wait times for care in the ER. And the problems is expected to get worse in many places in the coming years.

What if the ambulance doesn't come? Rural America faces a broken emergency medical system  (USA Today)

As rural hospitals continue to shutter across the nation, dwindling emergency medical services also must travel far to the nearest hospital or trauma center. Experts and those in the field say EMS needs a more systematic funding model to support rural and poorer urban communities. “This is a really extreme problem, and we need to figure out solutions. People think that when you call 911, that someone's coming in,” said lead author Yvonne Jonk, deputy director of the Maine Rural Health Research Center. “Most people don't realize that their communities don't actually have adequate coverage.

FDA approves $3.2 million gene therapy for rare muscular dystrophy in kids ages 4 and 5 (CNN)

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first gene therapy to treat a rare and devastating muscle disease but limited the approval to kids ages 4 and 5 based on available evidence….It was the first time a therapy of this nature – a one-time treatment that delivers a working copy of a gene to make up for one that leads to disease – has been cleared under the accelerated approval framework…

78 people face charges for $2.5 billion in attempted health care fraud, DOJ says (KPBS)

Federal and state law enforcement offices brought criminal charges across 16 states against 78 people for their roles in $2.5 billion in attempted health care fraud and opioid abuse schemes targeting the elderly, pregnant women and HIV patients. At least $1.1 billion was actually paid out in these cases, agency officials said.

SCIENCE AND TECH

Threads Becomes Most Rapidly Downloaded App, Raising Twitter’s Ire (New York Times)

Instagram’s new app was downloaded more than 30 million times in 16 hours. Twitter threatened legal action against its rival. In less than a day, Threads — which is aimed as a rival to Twitter — appears to have taken the crown as the most rapidly downloaded app ever.

Biden’s hydrogen bombshell leaving Europe in the dust (Politico)

The EU is investing billions into becoming a green energy superpower. But Washington’s Inflation Reduction Act means it’s the U.S. reaping the rewards.

Sharing deepfake intimate images to be criminalised in England and Wales (Guardian)

Under online safety bill, maximum sentence where intent to cause distress is proved will be two years

Amazon accused of tricking Prime customers (BBC)

The US has accused Amazon of tricking customers into signing up for automatically renewing Prime subscriptions and making it difficult to cancel. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the country's consumer rights watchdog, made the claims in a lawsuit.

Nearly half of US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling beekeepers stabilize population  (AP)

America’s honeybee hives just staggered through the second highest death rate on record, with beekeepers losing nearly half of their managed colonies, an annual bee survey found.  But using costly and Herculean measures to create new colonies, beekeepers are somehow keeping afloat.  … Scientists said a combination of parasites, pesticides, starvation and climate change keep causing large die-offs.

New class of gravitational waves could reveal supermassive black holes (NPR)

Scientists say they are starting to find signs of an elusive type of rumbling through space that could be created by the biggest, baddest black holes in the universe. The discovery means that astrophysicists may have opened a whole new window onto supermassive black holes.